Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 1
To our new members: Welcome to Canning Vale Toastmasters and congratulations on
taking that first step in your Toastmasters journey. Every
member is willing to help you at any time and we will all support
you with your progress towards your goals.
To make the most of your membership, be sure to read page 2
in your Competent Communicator Manual, especially A
Toastmasters Promise. We all look forward to watching you
become the speaker and leader you want to be.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Our 400th Meeting!
Meet your 2016-17 Club Officers
My Year as President— A Message from our Immediate Past President
MEET OUR NEW MEMBERS
Andre Figueiredo Peter Darangwa Kym Strachan
Frank Crisafio Peter Jordan
(Re-joined July 2016)
Our 400th Meeting!
CANNING VALE TOASTMASTERS CLUB
NEWSLETTER June / July 2016
Canning Vale Toastmasters
@CVTMPerth
Find us on
Facebook & Twitter
We meet every Tuesday @ 6.30pm
Canning Vale College Library
Dumbarton Road
Phone: 0417 915 464
Email: [email protected]
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 2
Celebrating our 400th Meeting!
Did you miss our
400th meeting?
View highlights of
our club’s milestone
event over the
following pages!
On Tuesday, 28 June 2016, Canning Vale Toastmasters Club
celebrated its 400th meeting anniversary!
Based around a “Ruby Red” theme which signifies health, wealth
and wisdom, the evening’s agenda included entertaining
speeches from current members, a delicious supper and
refreshments, and special appearances from past members of
the club.
Ronnie opening the meeting
with us shaking our hands
like we just don’t care
Seasoned Toastmaster Andre S
making his grand entrance to the
sounds of “Staying Alive”
Robyn leading an extended Table
Topics session in front of a
massive 57 member audience.
Questions from the night centred
around our “Ruby Red” and
“400th” anniversary theme!
New member
Andre F
giving his first
inspiration.
Peter’s Tonic
encouraged
everyone to
“give it their all!”
at Toastmasters.
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 3
Celebrating our 400th Meeting!
VIEW MORE IMAGES ON OUR
FACEBOOK GROUP PAGE!
@CANNING VALE TOASTMASTERS
Jenny delivering her
CC10 speech “One Step”,
telling us about her climb
up and down Mt Kinabalu
in Malaysia, one step at a
time.
Michelle recounting the
special moment with
her son, the night
before his wedding with
her CC4 speech, “The
Bark”.
Vanessa enthralling us from
head to toe with an advanced
speech from the Entertaining
Speech manual.
In her speech, “Build Your
Communities”, she advised
us on how Toastmasters has
equipped her with skills to win
over her local neighbourhood
grump, Mrs Green.
“If You Build It” - Mark tells the story
of the birth of CVTM and its many
achievements over the last 400
meetings.
Once a Toastmaster, always a Toastmaster —
members past, present, new, experienced and guests
all mingling under the one roof.
Thank you to everyone for making the evening such an
amazing night—CVTM would not have achieved all its
successes without each and every one of you!
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 4
Roll of Honour
Toastmaster of the Year— Robyn Richards
Congratulations to Robyn on being Toastmaster of the Year for 2015/16!
Robyn has been an integral part of CVTM since it’s charter in 2008, and continually goes
above and beyond to ensure our club maintains it’s high standards and is promoted outside of
our local Canning Vale community.
In addition to personally achieving her ALB during 2015/16, Robyn was VPPR and won the
PPP cup for CVTM at the recent D17 convention. Robyn is the eighth recipient of the TOTY
award and was voted by fellow club members as the most deserving recipient of this award.
AWARD ACHIEVED BY
Competent Communicator (CC) Elena Lindgren
Competent Communicator (CC) Jenny de Wind
Other Member Achievements:
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 5
Meeting 401
Tonight became an evening of
“firsts” as our new SAA, Michelle
Duncan opened Meeting 401
before Esthel led the remainder of
the night as first time Toastmaster.
New member Peter gave his first
inspiration around the
psychological and physical effects
of accepting defeat, while Amie
introduced a “continuing story”
concept to Table Topics which
allowed various members to
recount their own version of
events as they waited to board the
QEII in Fremantle.
Michelle returned with an
emotional Tonic encouraging us to
celebrate our lasts as much as our
firsts by intentionally closing
doors, while Paul described the
pros and cons of WA separating
from the rest of Australia for his
CC2 speech. Karen encouraged us
to become local activists by
contacting our local MPs to
change legislation around fine
repayment for those in financial
strife.
Outgoing Area Director for S31,
Andre Sequiera, gave his High
Performance Leadership speech
“Every end is a new beginning”
and shared with us his highlights
and learnings of organising and
implementing an Area S31 event.
Nafisa helped us to round off the
night with Highlights and Phrases,
while new member Andre
completed his first timing report.
The night ended with the induction
of our new club officers,
announcement of awards for the
club visitation competition, and a
club celebration of Mark’s birthday
with cake and frivolity!
Happy Birthday
Mark! Winners from Canning Vale for
the club visitation competition
Dennis revelling in power as
Club President for 2016/17
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 6
Meeting 402
Karen was a first time Toastmaster
and kept us on schedule all night!
During his Inspiration, Nim
reminded us to control our habits
and make the most of our day
because “time waits for nobody”.
Next, Hadi led us through a mixed
Table Topics round which revealed
that: Colin would give Donald
Trump a one-way ticket to another
planet, guest Duncan enjoys
watching the Olympics, Akash has
mixed opinions about soccer
greats Messi and Ronaldo due to
their behaviour during matches,
Emmet’s dream holiday
destination is Africa, and Mark had
a teenage crush on the ABBA
girls!
Kym had a profound realisation to
just be herself during her Tonic.
Then Andre F made a strong
impression with his Icebreaker
speech, revealing how he started
out as an arrogant kid with a
passion for basketball and Michael
Jordan, how he studied geology
but is colour blind so switched to
business management, and is now
driven to building his confidence
by becoming a Toastmaster.
Returning member Peter Jordan
gave a CC3 speech, “Second
Chances” and told us the gripping
consequences of a drinking and
speeding incident which almost
tragically ended his daughter and
her boyfriend’s life.
Nafisa prepared our bodies for
summer with handy nutrition and
lifestyle tips, while Noor shared
three major moments in his life
where he ignored his “monkey
brain” and followed his heart
instead.
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 7
Meet our Club Officers for 2016-17
Welcome to our club officers for 2016/17! (From L-R) Robyn Richards, Eloyise Braskic, Christina Ng, Dennis Foo,
Jenny de Wind, Elena Lindgren, Michelle Duncan.
Michele Naidu,
as Area Director
for S31 (taking
over from Andre
Sequiera
PLUS! Introducing...
Ronnie Giandzi,
as Canning Vale’s
Club Mentor
Coordinator!
Club President — Dennis Foo Secretary — Robyn Richards
VP Education — Eloyise Braskic Treasurer — Elena Lindgren
VP Membership — Jenny de Wind VP Public Relations — Christina Ng
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 8
Meeting 403
Hadi was Toastmaster for the night
and led the meeting with great
enthusiasm. New member Kym
gave an Inspiration on how to
make goal setting an enjoyable
experience, while Paul led us
through Table Topics with a mix
of questions.
We learned Dennis wastes most of
his money on online purchases,
Eloyise often gives up on winning
arguments which involve the
Dockers, Mark is an expert at
assembling flat pack furniture,
Peter J keeps tantrums to himself,
Robyn’s favourite pastime as a kid
was burying toy cars in the dirt for
fun, and Frank loves TV shows
about computers.
For his Inspiration, Peter D relayed
the cultural learnings he enjoyed
throughout his move from
Zimbabwe to Perth. It included his
50/50 approach to using “Yes” and
“Yep” during job interviews, how
he’d spend $10,000 on a can of
soft drink, enjoying family life in
Australia with his wife and son,
and not forgetting his father’s
wishes for him years ago.
Nim gave us tips on how to calm
ourselves down when preparing to
speak in public with his speech,
“Mindfulness in Public Speaking”.
Theuns told us about the time he
siphoned fuel from a ute and
ended up receiving 16 lashes as a
consequence.
Fiona gave an advanced speech
from the Communicating on Video
Manual on Pokemon Go, informing
us that people play the game on
average for 43 minutes per day.
Andre reminded us of Highlights
and Phrases from the night, while
Ash delivered the timing report.
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 9
Meeting 404
Nim led tonight’s meeting with the
theme, “All About Toastmasters”
before Frank’s Inspiration about a
charity ride he is doing for skin
cancer WA.
Esthel took Table Topics to a new
level of spontaneity by bringing
in unfamiliar flags of the world.
John has the flag of an exciting
country where you had to be on
edge. It ended up being the flag
of Benin. Ronnie had a flag with
running feet on it so she thought
it would be from Africa where they
run and love together. The flag
was actually from the Isle of Man.
Sheldon guessed he had the flag
of a dragon nation somewhere in
Asia and was pretty close as it was
actually the flag of Bhutan!
Vanessa thought her flag was from
Ireland where the four points of the
clover were four pints you had to
consume. The flag was from
Lombardi in Italy.
Colin announced that he was
pregnant during his Tonic.
Hadi spoke about “The Charity
Conundrum” during his CC3
speech, and gave advice on
whether you should or
shouldn’t donate to certain
charities.
Raj told a story about his
cousin Deran who has autism and
how his family learnt to live with
him. It has taught him patience,
tolerance and kindness.
Members then enjoyed a special
presentation by Roger MacDonald,
the District 17 Winner of the
International Speech final, who
gave his speech at our club before
heading over to Washington DC in
America.
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 10
Tip of the Month
Classic Storytelling Techniques for
Engaging Presentations Part 5
Continuing on from the last 4 months, here is the next technique to
help engage your audience.
Technique 5. In medias res
In medias res storytelling is when you begin your narrative
in the heat of the action, before starting over at the
beginning to explain how you got there.
By dropping your audience right into the most exciting part
of your story they’ll be gripped from the beginning and will
stay engaged to find out what happens.
But be careful – you don’t want to give away too much of the action straight away. Try hinting
at something bizarre or unexpected – something that needs more explanation. Give your
audience just enough information to keep them hooked, as you go back and set the scene of
your story. This only works for shorter presentations though – if you string it out too long your
audience will get frustrated and lose interest. Good for:
Grabbing attention from the start
Keep an audience craving resolution
Focusing attention on a pivotal moment in your story See also: An overview of in medias res storytelling at story-papers.com
Zak Ebrahim begins his talk with the revelation that his father helped plan the 1993 World
Trade Centre bombing. His audience is gripped from the beginning, as he begins to recount the
events of his childhood and the path he took after his father’s conviction.
Here’s a link to that speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyR-K2CZIHQ http://www.sparkol.com/engage/8-classic-storytelling-techniques-for-engaging-presentations/
Canning Vale Toastmasters Club Newsletter | www.toastmasterscv.net | 11
A word from outgoing CVTM President, Vanessa Chang
I have always managed to avoid the task and commitment of being on any
committee and when I was approached to be President - I freaked out! There was
no way I could do what the likes of Mike Palmer and Robyn Richards did so well at
the end of each meeting. I also had no idea how to chair a committee meeting so I
initially declined the position. However a very simple sentence had been uttered
and it had stayed with me over the course of the year.
Mark Richards had said “I think you could do this”.
Words really do have power and if someone thought I could be President of Canning Vale Toastmasters,
maybe I could?
A year made a big difference and with more confidence in my abilities I put my hand up for the role of
President at Canning Vale Toastmasters.
My first time closing the meeting was a nerve wracking experience
and I forgot lots of announcement items (however the club still
remains wonderful and vibrant – despite my oversights). The role
did however, get easier as the year progressed and by the end of
my term I was comfortable closing each meeting. I did not realise
how much I enjoyed this role until our new President Dennis Foo
took to the stage to close his first meeting. I recognised the nerves
associated with doing something new for the first time and have
seen over the course of a just a few weeks our new President settle
in and find his own comfort zone.
Being on the committee was not as difficult as I thought it would be and I had no
reason to be concerned. I was surrounded by the most amazing crew of people
who mentored me along the way. If anyone approaches you or if your think you
would like the experience of being on a committee – say YES because I think any
one of our amazing members could do this!
-Vanessa Canning Vale Toastmasters
@CVTMPerth
Find us on
Phone: 0417915464
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
My Year As President
We meet every Tuesday @ 6.30pm
Canning Vale College Library
Dumbarton Road
Phone: 0417 915 464
Email: [email protected]
We meet every Tuesday @ 6.30pm
Canning Vale College Library
Dumbarton Road
Phone: 0417 915 464
Email: [email protected]